Romani in Film; Topics

 Update:

1. EMIR KUSTURICA:

Try director Emir Kusturica's groundbreaking 1988 film The Time of the Gypsies., This clue from the National Geographic site, ://worldmusic.nationalgeographic.com/worldmusic/view/page.basic/genre/content.genre/roma__gypsy__music_778/  He was born in Sarajevo, not of gypsy parents, but has found an affinity with them.  See 2005 NYT at ://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/08/magazine/08EMIR.html

Then Black Cat, White Cat - see review of this film and other works in the New York Times, Sunday, September 5, 1999.  See videos related, on YouTube, at ://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBbzcj1t2WY&feature=related/; and at  ://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdRPRvhXSCo&NR=1/.  Enjoy the music. Mr. Kusturica characterizes the music as Unca-Unca, or oontsa-oontsa, a 2/4 beat, combining rock 'n roll, reggae and elements from times gone by - "a mess,  but a nice mess."

And find, in Images for Black Cat, White Cat, even more fun.

He is the only child of Muslim parents, but apparently they were not practicing Muslims. See article. By 1999, he lived in Normandy with his family.

2. JASMINE DELLAL.

PBS has this: "American Gypsy: Stranger in Everybody's Land," film by Jasmine Dellal, at ://www.pbs.org/pov/pov2000/americangypsy/index.html. The estimate there is about 1,000,000 Gypsies in America. See review at ://www.americangypsy.com/the_film/full_description.html

 
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Cross reference to another of our sites - see comment there about Roma in Cesky Krumlov - populations living well together - Roma in Czech city, Cesky Krumlov

We have no ethnic connection to Roma, but a deep interest in why humans need to scapegoat others. We also have no information on dialects, but would like to know more.

Current issues: Migrations, Economic Pressures, Global Movements

Conditions. Further update, on the poor vs. progress. This is 3/3/08: Read "On the Margins: Roma and Public Services in Romania, Bulgaria, and Macedonia, With a Supplement on Housing in the Czech Republic," by Ina Zoon, Open Society Institute press 2001. Covers denials of health care, lack of adequate housing, and recommendations.

Migrations. Here is a teaching, resource site with an excellent historical overview of the migration of Roma-Gypsies, from the East to the British Isles, and to US and other continents. //www.travellersinleeds.co.uk/_travellers/HistoryEngland.html. There is a timeline, maps, pictures, a great start for understanding the magnitude of the accomplishment of Gypsies - surviving for millennia, migrating, or going on routes within areas, as they kept on the road.

Like any people, move where it may be better. Look at the conditions documented in the Ina Zoon sourcebook, above.

Like anyone's immigrant grandparents and great-grandparents of whatever background, who came here, or to Canada. How stop the human desire for a life with more health, economic security, a place where families can survive over subsistence / persecution level. A water level concept. Always has been. Immigration happens. And it enriches, if others can let it. Look at the children's pictures at the Travellers In Leeds site.

See this article regarding the Romanian Roma population, set to move wherever it is safer, better. See //www.reuters.com/article/sphereNews/idUSL0932609020070909?sp=true&view=sphere.
The article asks, is the European Union any more prepared, or amenable, to sharing abundance or even sufficiency, with those who have neither, and what is the consequence of not so doing.

Us, US, heed. Immigration is a global issue, self-determination drives are a global issue. A finger in a dike cannot last. Right, right?

Romney - Rom'nie --Surname from English Gypsies? Romnichel. Romani.

 Many family tree roots, one main trunk perhaps, but many branchings.

Of all the branchings, which do we choose as our identity.

Does that conscious choice negate in any way 

the other branches we elect to ignore, 

in order to better ourselves.

Family trees. Romany surnames, see http://www.20000-names.com/gypsy_names.htm.

The Romnichels are a distinct group of Gypsies, with origins in England. Derivations include Rom'nie. Sounds similar to Romany, the term in older literature for Gypsies, or Romani. Or Romney.

They sound alike for good reason. Romana, Romney. Gypsy surnames dating from 1567, see, fair use from the PDF site,

"ROMANA/ROMNEY 1567-1623 (int) Shrophshire, Suffolk) (See Robert Dawson ARITF)",  from JJ Gypsy Index PDF.

See also Romney Marsh Gypsies, at  http://gogowhippet.com/wordpress/marsh/tag/gypsy/

We have an interest in geneology as it may or may not be evidenced in last names, for recreational thought, and here focus on the last name, Romney. The Gypsy Lore Society addresses the Romnichels or Rom'nie, at ://www.gypsyloresociety.org/cultureintro.html. .

Actual Romneys may well have their own family tradition of origins, but the name Romney - Rom'nie standing alone suggests English Gypsy roots: dealing in draft horses, horses for transporation, horse traders, basket makers and that term included making rustic furniture, and fortune telling.

See this Gypsy Lore Society site for description of this group and many others, along with the trades that the groups specialized in: Scroll down to Romnichel. The information is from a further book's introduction, "Gypsies and Travelers in North America: An Annotated Bibliography," by William G. Lockwood and Sheila Salo, that book linked at ://www.gypsyloresociety.org/books.htm.

Update - here is a young man in Kent, England, who identifies as a "romney gypsey" in a message board entry dated 1/29/06 at ://www.bbc.co.uk/kent/have_your_say/community/romany_voices_archive21.shtml.

Compare the Rom. The Rom were Gypsies not from England, but from Serbia, Russia, and Austria-Hungary says the same Gypsy Lore Society site. Coppersmiths, including "repair and refinement of equipment used in bakeries, laundries, confectionaries...." They also told fortunes. The Kalderash are a Rom subgroup.

The "Black Dutch" group of Gypsies has largely been absorbed into the Romnichels. Same Gypsy Lore Society site, scroll down to "Black Dutch." This group was from Germany, but the term is also used for other non-Gypsy groups apparently. Again, horse traders, basket makers, and many provide to the Mennonite and Amish communities. See Pennsylvania Dutch. Hard to get reliable info on "Black Dutch," says site.

So: the papers already have found an ancestral link between Vice President Cheyney and Senator Barack Obama, ://www.bostonherald.com/news/national/politics/view.bg?articleid=1040896, and this adds a possible Mitt Romney to the ancestral Rom'nies.
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In a name. See ://website.lineone.net/~rtfhs/gypsy.html
Other Romani first names: Dangerfield, Cinderella, Britannia, Sabina 9those Sabine women?)
And surnames: Lee (Gypsy Rose Lee?), Ayres, etc. and the site notes that all with those names are not Gypsies, just that Gypsies with those names traveled in England. At Geneology Forum you can join the fray in searching for answers with probably no way of checking what you get. Still, recreational.